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malcolmk14 · 07-29-2022, 02:54 PM

Cape Breton Island was great. Four of us had been planning this for a while and it was pleasantly surprising when everything fell into place and we didn't run into any travel or baggage issues. One of our foursome was coming from Pearson and didn't trust Air Canada not to lose his golf clubs, so he used Shipsticks ($109 USD one way) to our first golf course to make sure they'd get there on time and have that peace of mind.

We stayed just outside Baddeck, about 5 minutes from town in a great 4-bedroom Airbnb. Thought this location was good because it was very central on the island and about an hour to Cabot on the west side, and an hour to Highlands Links up north.

Friday was Bell Bay. This is a Thomas McBroom course in Baddeck & we chose it for our first day because we'd just done 3 1/2 hours of driving the night before from Halifax so we were fairly certain we'd be tired and want a more relaxing round. The only other McBroom courses I've played were Tower Ranch and Country Hills, and this couldn't have been more different.

There is no clubhouse and when you drive onto the property, there is an RV park on the right side. The pro shop is located in a trailer & the staff was really nice. They seemed genuinely happy that we chose to play one of our rounds out there. It felt to us like most of the people playing there on a Friday morning were locals & people who played there every day. Hanging around the practice area, seemed like most people were in the 55+ age range and all knew each other.

Bell Bay is forest golf, with a great view of the lake. It was hot and humid, and the fog over the lake obscured our view for the front 9. Conditions were really good, greens were in great shape and the course was very fair. If I had to compare the course conditions to something we have here I'd say it's pretty close to Redwood in terms of look and quality. It felt like mountain/forest golf. By the end of the round we could see the lake clearly, and the four finishing holes are absolutely excellent. Overall a pretty nice round & definitely somewhere I'd recommend playing. Nothing fancy, no frills or gimmicks, but good golf.

Saturday we made the drive to Cabot Cliffs in Inverness. Cliffs is the newer of the two Cabot courses so all of the bells and whistles of the resort are non-existent here. Cliffs has a very small pro shop, the driving range, and a halfway house. If you want the clubhouse, the restaurant, the locker room, you have to make the 10 minute drive to Cabot Links. More on that later.

We booked these rounds months ago, and when we did we requested caddies for Cliffs. None of us are excellent golfers, we're all mid-handicappers, but we wanted the caddie experience and I'd heard that there are quite a few quirks and blind shots on Cliffs. Somehow, this request didn't make it onto our booking, so we ended up not having caddies available for our round. The staff was apologetic, and unfortunately they were also sold out of yardage books so we got no help there, either. Not a problem, we saved a few hundred bucks and threw our bags on some complimentary push carts.

It was hot. It hit 31 degrees and there was not a cloud in the sky or even a tiny bit of wind to offer any relief. Cliffs is completely out in the open for most of the course, so the 15th tee is the first time we found any shade. As luck would have it, there was a group of 20 college buddy Americans playing in the 5 groups directly ahead of us, for large sums of money, and the pace of play was pretty atrocious. I'm not one to complain, so we just tried to make the best of it and enjoyed our extra 60-90 minutes out on the nicest golf course in Canada, but in 31 degree heat a 5 hour 25 minute walking-only round was pretty tough. We stocked up on beverages after 10 (the halfway house) and finally saw a beverage cart after 14, but other than that, it was pretty dry out there on the course.

The course is absolutely incredible, I don't know what can even be said about it. Incredible conditions, the greens are insane, the bunkering is insane, the location is insane, and for 5 hours 25 minutes all we could talk about was how they decided to put a golf course *here*. There is no way to tell where the tee boxes turn into fairways and where the fairways turn into greens. It's all the same. The elevation change on the back 9 nearly killed us, the 11th tee box to the 15th tee box is all uphill, but then it was all downhill from there. We met a staff member on the 14th green who is a hockey coach in Lethbridge for most of the year, and then he goes to Cape Breton with his wife in the summers and works at Cabot. Nice life.

Highlights of the round were hitting the drive of my life and making birdie on the par 5 15th where your approach plays downhill overlooking the Bay of St. Lawrence with Margaree Island in the background. A friend chipped in for birdie out of the bunker on the outrageous par 3 16th which is the hole you see on all the ads, commercials, and if you google Cabot Cliffs. And then on the 17th, one of our guys putted from 140 yards out to 10 feet down the hill, and another drove the green over the cliffs and missed the 8-foot eagle putt.

Talking with some of the staff, it sounds like every day is the same out there. 160 golfers 12 minutes apart rain or shine. Never any different. Americans are where they make bank and the last two years they've had basically none. This year, it's mostly Americans. I asked one staff member if he actually gets a chance to golf the course and he said he's played 55 rounds so far this year... Incredible.

After the round at Cliffs we had a round booked at The Nest, which is Cabot's 10-hole par 3 course up the hill. Holes ranged from 85 to 140 yards (except for the 10th which was 220 downhill facing the bay), and we didn't see anyone else on the course until we were crossing over from the 9th to the 10th. We took about a half hour break and stocked up on some water and Gatorades. This is pretty much against all golf etiquette but we were so exhausted after the 5 1/2 hour beatdown on Cliffs that two of our four just took their shoes off on the first hole and walked the Par 3 course in bare feet. We played 5 bucks a hole without gloves (or shoes in some cases) and had an absolute blast. Conditions were just as good as the main course and the guys who walked it barefoot said it was like walking around your living room on carpet, except for stepping on the broken wooden tees on some of the tee boxes. Haha.

This is getting long so I'll post the rest later. We played Highlands Links on the Sunday and Cabot Links (the worse golf course but better overall experience) on Monday.

07-29-2022, 02:54 PM	#5574
malcolmk14 Franchise Player Join Date: Jan 2008 Exp:	Cape Breton Island was great. Four of us had been planning this for a while and it was pleasantly surprising when everything fell into place and we didn't run into any travel or baggage issues. One of our foursome was coming from Pearson and didn't trust Air Canada not to lose his golf clubs, so he used Shipsticks ($109 USD one way) to our first golf course to make sure they'd get there on time and have that peace of mind. We stayed just outside Baddeck, about 5 minutes from town in a great 4-bedroom Airbnb. Thought this location was good because it was very central on the island and about an hour to Cabot on the west side, and an hour to Highlands Links up north. Friday was Bell Bay. This is a Thomas McBroom course in Baddeck & we chose it for our first day because we'd just done 3 1/2 hours of driving the night before from Halifax so we were fairly certain we'd be tired and want a more relaxing round. The only other McBroom courses I've played were Tower Ranch and Country Hills, and this couldn't have been more different. There is no clubhouse and when you drive onto the property, there is an RV park on the right side. The pro shop is located in a trailer & the staff was really nice. They seemed genuinely happy that we chose to play one of our rounds out there. It felt to us like most of the people playing there on a Friday morning were locals & people who played there every day. Hanging around the practice area, seemed like most people were in the 55+ age range and all knew each other. Bell Bay is forest golf, with a great view of the lake. It was hot and humid, and the fog over the lake obscured our view for the front 9. Conditions were really good, greens were in great shape and the course was very fair. If I had to compare the course conditions to something we have here I'd say it's pretty close to Redwood in terms of look and quality. It felt like mountain/forest golf. By the end of the round we could see the lake clearly, and the four finishing holes are absolutely excellent. Overall a pretty nice round & definitely somewhere I'd recommend playing. Nothing fancy, no frills or gimmicks, but good golf. Saturday we made the drive to Cabot Cliffs in Inverness. Cliffs is the newer of the two Cabot courses so all of the bells and whistles of the resort are non-existent here. Cliffs has a very small pro shop, the driving range, and a halfway house. If you want the clubhouse, the restaurant, the locker room, you have to make the 10 minute drive to Cabot Links. More on that later. We booked these rounds months ago, and when we did we requested caddies for Cliffs. None of us are excellent golfers, we're all mid-handicappers, but we wanted the caddie experience and I'd heard that there are quite a few quirks and blind shots on Cliffs. Somehow, this request didn't make it onto our booking, so we ended up not having caddies available for our round. The staff was apologetic, and unfortunately they were also sold out of yardage books so we got no help there, either. Not a problem, we saved a few hundred bucks and threw our bags on some complimentary push carts. It was hot. It hit 31 degrees and there was not a cloud in the sky or even a tiny bit of wind to offer any relief. Cliffs is completely out in the open for most of the course, so the 15th tee is the first time we found any shade. As luck would have it, there was a group of 20 college buddy Americans playing in the 5 groups directly ahead of us, for large sums of money, and the pace of play was pretty atrocious. I'm not one to complain, so we just tried to make the best of it and enjoyed our extra 60-90 minutes out on the nicest golf course in Canada, but in 31 degree heat a 5 hour 25 minute walking-only round was pretty tough. We stocked up on beverages after 10 (the halfway house) and finally saw a beverage cart after 14, but other than that, it was pretty dry out there on the course. The course is absolutely incredible, I don't know what can even be said about it. Incredible conditions, the greens are insane, the bunkering is insane, the location is insane, and for 5 hours 25 minutes all we could talk about was how they decided to put a golf course here. There is no way to tell where the tee boxes turn into fairways and where the fairways turn into greens. It's all the same. The elevation change on the back 9 nearly killed us, the 11th tee box to the 15th tee box is all uphill, but then it was all downhill from there. We met a staff member on the 14th green who is a hockey coach in Lethbridge for most of the year, and then he goes to Cape Breton with his wife in the summers and works at Cabot. Nice life. Highlights of the round were hitting the drive of my life and making birdie on the par 5 15th where your approach plays downhill overlooking the Bay of St. Lawrence with Margaree Island in the background. A friend chipped in for birdie out of the bunker on the outrageous par 3 16th which is the hole you see on all the ads, commercials, and if you google Cabot Cliffs. And then on the 17th, one of our guys putted from 140 yards out to 10 feet down the hill, and another drove the green over the cliffs and missed the 8-foot eagle putt. Talking with some of the staff, it sounds like every day is the same out there. 160 golfers 12 minutes apart rain or shine. Never any different. Americans are where they make bank and the last two years they've had basically none. This year, it's mostly Americans. I asked one staff member if he actually gets a chance to golf the course and he said he's played 55 rounds so far this year... Incredible. After the round at Cliffs we had a round booked at The Nest, which is Cabot's 10-hole par 3 course up the hill. Holes ranged from 85 to 140 yards (except for the 10th which was 220 downhill facing the bay), and we didn't see anyone else on the course until we were crossing over from the 9th to the 10th. We took about a half hour break and stocked up on some water and Gatorades. This is pretty much against all golf etiquette but we were so exhausted after the 5 1/2 hour beatdown on Cliffs that two of our four just took their shoes off on the first hole and walked the Par 3 course in bare feet. We played 5 bucks a hole without gloves (or shoes in some cases) and had an absolute blast. Conditions were just as good as the main course and the guys who walked it barefoot said it was like walking around your living room on carpet, except for stepping on the broken wooden tees on some of the tee boxes. Haha. This is getting long so I'll post the rest later. We played Highlands Links on the Sunday and Cabot Links (the worse golf course but better overall experience) on Monday.